Apolo Ohno – How To Be An Ironman

 Many of us find inspiration from Apolo Ohno because of his determination, hard-work, and endurance that set him above the rest. His competitive speed skating career started when he was only 14 years old and he competed in World Cup and Olympic games for many years. He was able to earn 8 Olympics medals; two golds, two silvers, and four bronze medals. He now holds the most medals in the Winter Games for an American. Even after retirement Apolo continues to inspire us, he continues to engage in his athleticism in other races and competitions such as the New York City Marathon and the Ironman competition. The Ironman competition is the hardest 1-day competition in the entire world, covering a whole 140 miles via swimming, biking, and running. It pushes you to your limits and then even further. 

The five key components of training to be an Ironman competitor are: balance, consistency, endurance, adaptability, and recovery. First of all you need to understand that a triathlon is not just simply a combination of three different sports, it is in fact a sport itself and should be approached in this holistic manner while training in order to succeed when it is race time. The second component is consistency, triathletes live regular lives too, they have work and families, but you have to be consistent with your training and work out routines if you want to be able to compete on the highest level. The next component is endurance, which is obviously huge; when you are training you need to put your endurance to the test like you would on competition day. Having endurance is what will push you and ultimately get you to the finish line, but it is something you have to train and teach. Another tenet is adaptability. This is key you have to be able to adapt to any changes that you might be faced with and to be flexible. As well as knowing your body, maybe you planned to sprint the last half of a mile but you know that if you do you will sustain an injury, it is knowing your limits and being able to adapt to them. Finally the last part is recovery, you have to rest in between workouts in order to let you body recover and replenish.